"May contains" are still not required by canadian law. There are many companies who have chosen to include them, and advise those with allergies, and many others who still do not include them, even though they should be there. So, a product with no "may contains" can either be free of traces of other allergens...or full of traces of unlisted allergens. I phone the manufacturer of every new prdoct to see why there is an absence of a "may contain" warning.

Food labels must disclose allergens in laymen’s terms. For example, if a product contains egg or egg products, the label should state "contains egg," instead of forcing consumers to understand terms like phosvitin, lysozyme and livetin, which also may indicate the presence of eggs.

The legislation takes effect January 1, 2006.

"The ingredients will be listed in everyday language, not in terminology that only scientists can understand," said Eileen Sexton, director of communication for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

FALCPA requires that food manufacturers identify, in plain, common language, the presence of any of the eight major food allergens, which are milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy.

This whole thing "may contain" thing drives me crazy. As far as I know, there are no guidelines in existence that help companies decide what should have a "may contain" warning and what doesn't need it. It's totally up to them to figure it out. It must drive the companies crazy too.

And the new Canadian guidelines that are coming out (one day...) will not deal with it either. The focus of the updates are plain language, not precautionary warnings.

My son's school put a warning in their newsletter that Duncan Hines cake mixes aren't peanut/nut free. It seems a lot of parents thought the same... that if there is no allergy warning then it's safe. I'm so glad that the school decided to inform the parents this way. It's always reassuring to see examples of allergy awareness in the school.

Thank you for taking the time to email us. The lines our Duncan Hines®
Mixes and Frostings are run on, are cleaned very well in between. If any
mix contains peanuts or tree nuts, either the whole day is dedicated to
those products or they are run at the end of day. For issues as sensitive
as an allergic reaction, the best suggestion would be not to consume the
product in case of a chance of cross contamination. Contact us again if
we can be of assistance in the future. [/quote]

Well, there you go. To me, that's too risky. They don't want allergic people as customers obviously, so guess what? That's more than 5% of the population because it include allergic people's immediate families.

Another option is "Our Compliments" products, which is Sobey's store line (it is sold in other stores, but I'm not sure which), marks allergens very clearly on all their products. (If a store brand can do it so diligently, why can't big national brands?) Now I don't know if they have cake mixes, I will check next time I'm in and let you know what the warnings are, if they are any.

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